Total marine fisheries extractions by country in the Baltic Sea

Total marine fisheries extractions by country in the Baltic Sea: 1950-present, Rossing, Booth and Zeller 167
(Anon., pers. comm.). 2 Historically, fishers had strict quotas and were required to land their catches along
with detailed reports at national collection points. Fishers were thus unable to sell directly to the market,
which made IUU fishing unprofitable (Anon., pers. comm.). Poland joined the EU in 2004 and became
subject to the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). This included a reduction in fleet capacity and a
new TAC system which consequently, made over-fishing and underreporting very economical for private
fishers, and especially those targeting cod. The EU commission banned Poland from cod fishing after
discovering one particular fisher had registered only 1/3 of cod landings in the first semester of 2007
(Anon., pers. comm.). The country is now being forced to make up for underreported landings with
additional reductions to Poland‘s current share of the TAC for cod. ICES estimates underreporting in the
Polish cod fishery ranges between 35-45% (Anon., pers. comm.), the World Wildlife Fund 50% (Anon.,
2009b), and an estimate of more than 300% was obtained from a highly reliable anonymous source
interviewed in 2008.
In the first half of the 1970s, Poland‘s cod fishery was one of the most important of its kind in the Baltic.
Polish landings accounted for 30% of the total cod landings from the Baltic, and about 38% of these were
taken from the eastern stock (Subdivisions 25-32; ICES, 1995). These stocks are now considered to be in
the worst condition of any cod in the Baltic, and thus the majority of Poland‘s management schemes are
concerned with the conservation of this species. Minimum mesh size, landing size, closed areas and
seasons are being used as current management controls on cod fishing. The introduction of the Bacoma
trawl in 2004 has also helped to reduce bycatch of juvenile cod (FAO, 2007). Polish fishers have displayed
very strong opposition to fishing bans as well as the repercussions associated with unregulated and
underreported fishing. They argue that even with increased individual fishing quotas, the reduction in fleet
capacity in combination with low overall TACs for commercial species, and high fuel prices have made
fishing unprofitable. Although Poland‘s share of EU quotas for cod have been exceeded consistently since
2004, their TACs for herring and sprat are often left unfulfilled (up to 50%). This is due to the low prices
for herring and sprat in comparison to cod, as well as the increased imports from countries such as
Norway. Despite these drawbacks to marine fisheries, the processing sector in Poland has grown
consistently since 2004 (FAO, 2009).
The purpose of this study is to provide an estimate of Poland‘s total fisheries catches (in contrast to
reported landings) in the Baltic Sea from 1950-2007. The ‗ICES catch statistics database‘ provides
landings data for Poland from 1955-2007 (ICES, 2009a). These data are reported landings only, with no
apparent effort to fully represent the total catch (which would account for IUU as well as reported
landings). Therefore, for the purposes of this report the ICES catch statistics will be referred to as ICES
‗landings statistics‘ to better reflect the nature of the data. Estimates of IUU in this study include data
source adjustments to reported landings, unreported (referred to as ‗unallocated‘ by ICES) landings,
discards, and recreational catches. Our approach utilizes previously reported data by ICES, a review of the
academic and grey literature, as well as correspondence with local experts. Our correspondence with local
authorities entailed high degrees of desired anonymity by those interviewed. We would like to
acknowledge those who provided information despite the risks involved pertaining to job security in the
politically charged atmosphere which surrounds the topic of IUU and other controversial fisheries issues.
METHODS
The ‗ICES Catch Statistics database‘ (ICES, 2009a), is the only publicly available resource available that
presents annual landings data for all taxa and all fishing areas within the Baltic Sea. For the purposes of
our catch reconstruction, we referred to the ICES catch statistics as the ‗ICES landings statistics‘, which
reflects the true nature of the data presented (i.e., the database presents ‗reported landings’, not total
catches). Thus, ICES landings statistics provided the official baseline for our reconstruction to which 4
categories of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) catches were added to estimate total catch: i)
‗adjustments‘, being positive or negative additions to reported data, based on reputable ICES stock
assessment working group data (ICES, 2009b), as well as national datasets; ii) ‗unreported’ landings
(referred to by ICES as ‗unallocated‘ catches) being catches taken but not reported to officials; iii)
‗discards‘, being fish caught and disposed of at sea; and iv) ‗recreational catches’. Adjustments to reported
landings provided the best estimate of commercial landings in Poland from 1950-2007, to which estimates
of unreported landings, discards and recreational catches were added. When sufficient data to derive
2
Many sources interviewed for or interacted with in this report expressed a strong desire to remain anonymous for personal reasons.